🧑‍⚖️ $125 million fine for Ripple

Cryptocurrency payment company Ripple has been fined $125 million as part of its years-long dispute with the SEC, according to a court filing on Wednesday.
In 2020, the SEC accused Ripple of raising $1.3 billion through the sale of XRP, which it claimed to be an unregistered security.
"The SEC's motion for relief and the entry of a final judgment are granted in part and denied in part," the filing signed by Judge Analisa Torres of New York states. "The court will enter a final judgment enjoining Ripple from further violations of the securities laws and imposing a civil penalty of $125,035,150."
In July 2023, Judge Torres ruled that some of Ripple's XRP sales, known as programmatic sales, did not violate securities laws due to a blind auction process in place for them. However, she ruled that other direct sales of XRP to institutional investors were investment contracts and thus constituted unregistered securities sales.
Ripple's fine is significantly lower than the proposed $2 billion penalty by the SEC, while Ripple argued that it should be closer to $10 million.
"The SEC asked for 2 billion dollars, and the court reduced its demand by about 94%, acknowledging that it had played too hard," said Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse after the decision.
"The court also addressed the 'blatant nature of Ripple's conduct' and noted that 'there is no doubt that the repeated and highly lucrative violation of Section 5 is a serious offense,' said an SEC spokesperson to The Block.
XRP surged more than 25% immediately after the news, to around $0.63, before slightly correcting, according to The Block's XRP price page.